TRADE unions have vowed to take legal action against a school if it continues to refuse to officially recognise them.

They wrote a letter expressing concerns that staff at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) will not have any “legal right” to “meaningful negotiations” if they are not involved in discussions around future policies.

The letter was signed by Unison, the National Education Union (NEU), the GMB Union and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

It said they had been trying to pass a trade union recognition agreement (Tura) with the school for three years and agreements had been drafted twice in the last 18 months – but these had both been blocked by newly installed chief executives.

Instead it said the school has introduced a “policy and procedures forum” to discuss matters directly with staff without union involvement.

A spokesman said: “The proposed group only goes as far as receiving comments from staff on selected policies which they deem appropriate. This group will not have any legal right to meaningful negotiation around policies and does not propose to even loosely discuss wider issues such as pay and working conditions.”

The union threatened legal action to force the Tura through.

The spokesman said: “Towards the end of August your officials from your unions were bypassed by Aldridge in favour of writing to regional offices.

“This is highly unusual practice. It was indicated that a Tura would not be signed and a joint negotiating council will not be established.

“Nationally, there are legal avenues we can take to oblige Aldridge to engage with us, which we will of course pursue but we are very concerned this behaviour is not what we expect from an employer that values its staff.”

Jane Fletcher, new chief executive of the Aldridge Education academy trust, met representatives from trade unions on Monday.

It was described as “very promising” by a spokesman for the trust, who said it would “be giving serious consideration to the proposals put forward by the unions’ representatives and it was agreed that meetings will take place regularly in future”.

He said: “Having joined the trust in May, Jane Fletcher wanted to get a thorough understanding of our schools, the needs of our students, and to meet with staff in order to build an informed relationship with the unions.

“As a trust we recognise the value of a good working relationship with the trades unions that represent our employees but also the value of consulting directly with staff, not all of whom are trade union members.

“That is why we have introduced our staff consultation forum.

“The conditions of employment and legislative framework for the employment of all school teachers and non-teaching school staff in England and Wales are governed by national agreements.

“Aldridge Education is committed to those agreements and the new forum does not affect that.

“We hope it will enable us to take the views of all staff, whether represented by a union or not, on how best to achieve parity, fairness and consistency on employment matters across all of our schools.”